Can the extension handle a Membership system?

The information is relevant to discontinued Subscriptions and Recurring Payments 1.9.3 version only.

If you are looking for any answers regarding Subscriptions And Recurring Payments 2.x branch, check this category instead.

Can the Subscriptions and Recurring Payments extension be used for a Membership-based site?

The Subscriptions and Recurring Payments extension itself does not comprise all the functionality required for setting up a membership system. However, it can be used for such purpose if combined with some other modules and native Magetno features.

The extension allows to assign customers who have purchased a subscription product to a certain group and remove them from that group* on the subscription expiration.

*Remember that one user can be a member of one group only due to Magento's native restrictions.

Thus, there are 2 possible scenarios:

- Restricting product access for non-Members

You can make certain products and/ or categories available for subscribers only if you use the Subscriptions And Recurring Payments extension together with Catalog Permissions module. In such case, Subscriptions And Recurring Payments module will handle regular billing and customer's group assignation, while the Catalog Permissions will restrict the product access based on the Group a customer belongs to.

- Setting up special pricing for Members

This scenario is only possible if you are on Magento CE 1.7+ (or Magento EE 1.12+). The Group Price native Magento feature allows to set special prices for certain customer groups, while the Subscriptions And Recurring Payments extensions can handle group assignation.